Being a newbie and wanting to spend as much time as possible learning to ride, is it a good idea to get a leash? I do have a helmet and clearly understand the reasons for not having one. I think learning w/out one can help to build body dragging skills, but I'm assuming these skills will also improve as board riding skills improve.

Has anyone had any major injuries (when wearing a helmet) from a rectrable leash? I can see how a bungee type leash will spring the board back, but can a rectractable leash do the same?

thanks

Jason (the newb)

and by the way, I did learn a valueable lesson yesterday as I blew off work to go riding - Just because you want to ride, doesn't mean you always can. But it was a good day, and I would encourage all newbies to spend some time watching. Now I have a great understanding of launching / landing & how to handle myself safely at Alameda.

No leash!!! Even the retracable leashes will get you hurt. A helmet is a good idea, but what iif you get turned around and the board comes at your face?? What if the baord hits you below your helmet?? Learn to bodydrag upwind, it's much easier than learning to ride upwind. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

dewey wrote:No leash!!! Even the retracable leashes will get you hurt. A helmet is a good idea, but what iif you get turned around and the board comes at your face?? What if the baord hits you below your helmet?? Learn to bodydrag upwind, it's much easier than learning to ride upwind. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

Dewey

When teaching people to ride, I don't even give them a board until they can body drag upwind. Of course in learning, that's a lot easier to do if you are out in deep water. Body draggin up wind at Alameda with all the other folks whizzing around you is a bit tuff.

Gasn in z head wrote:Bro - save yourself the pain and injury that WILL come with a leash. I put a nice gash in my skull through a helmit. Just don't use one.

Invest the time in learning how to bodydrag upwind. It's not hard.

Good winds + waves, Zeev.

Zeev and everyone else is right, don't do it! Learn to bodydrag upwind ASAP. It's not hard and the worst of it is that you just have to take more tacks to get back to your board than if you were well-versed in it. People get hurt using them, the force can be tremendous. When I first started, I didn't have any lessons and learned a lot of things the hard way and lost a couple boards also. Luckily they weren't more than $200 each, but that's a small price to pay for keeping you head intact!

I hate to say it, but I bought one today. I'm only planning on using it for a month or so, as soon as I'm up and riding it'll be gone. The main reason I decided to buy one is for my trip to Baja next month. I know the hi & low tides can be extreme on the Sea of Cortez and I didn't want to lose a new board. Hopefully, I'll be confident in bodydragging before then so I won't need it.

That is if the wind ever drops to the mid-low teens so I can use my 17.

I took my lesson from an IKO instructor, and I wasn't given a board until I could demonstrate that I could body drag upwind. I found it remarkably easy, though. And it's a good thing -- on my first attempt with the board, it got away from me, and I needed to 'drag upwind for it. Oddly enough, I *overshot* it upwind by about 40 feet, and had to drift downwind into it. I say this to provide example that the upwind dragging is really not hard.
I find the idea of a leash scary, and my school doesn't use them for safety reasons.